Evaluation of Operational Performance of Gas Turbine Cogeneration Plants Using an Optimization Tool: OPS-Operation

To attain the highest performance of gas turbine cogeneration plants, it is necessary to rationally select the numbers and capacities of gas turbines and auxiliary equipment in consideration of their operational strategies corresponding to energy demands which change with season and time. It is also important to rationally select the options such as the variable heat to power by the steam injection or combined cycle, and the inlet air cooling by the ice storage combined with electric compression refrigeration or steam absorption refrigeration. The evaluation of the effects of these alternatives on the performance is an important work for designers. However, it takes much time to conduct the work thoroughly. The authors have developed an optimization tool named “OPS-Operation” to assess the operational strategies for given configurations and specifications of energy supply plants. This tool has a user-friendly interface for the functions of data registration, graphical flowsheet editing, automatic programming and optimization calculation, and graphical representation of results. In this paper, the effects of the aforementioned alternatives on the operational performance of gas turbine cogeneration plants are evaluated using the optimization tool in terms of many criteria including operational cost, energy consumption, and $CO2$ emission. It is demonstrated that the tool is very effective to evaluate the performance rationally, flexibly, and easily.